The Bottom LineThe NX703 costs too much money, especially for a 46-inch TV, but it does at least have the decency to make up for it by including a Freeview HD tuner and a bunch of really terrific Internet video services. With a bit of tweaking we had this TV producing a very decent picture too

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Sony hasn't endeared itself to us in recent years. It's had a nasty habit of releasing TVs that weren't up to the high standard we expected, and cost an awful lot of cash. The company has promised a change of direction after a financial results shock, however, and it's determined to prove it's got what it takes to win over our TV-loving hearts once again.

The NX703 range is particularly stylish and offers a little more in the way of features than the average telly. The 46-inch model we tested costs around £1,700. We're certain that price will fall in time, but it's certainly not cheap. The question is, as always, what does it do to earn its keep?

Stylish new direction for Sony
Sony didn't offer much in the way of styling to differentiate its TVs from anything else on the market last year. For the most part, its screens were pretty mundane. This year, however, the 'Monolith' design has made the company as proud as a father walking his daughter down the aisle.

The model we tested was finished in white, which we found rather fetching. The Monolith concept is so-called because the single panel makes the TV look like one piece of glass. It's very smart, but it works better when the bezel is black, rather than white.

We really love the remote too. It's well thought out, and very funky. Its curved shape gives it an unusual but comfortable feel. The buttons work well and no complications arise from them being rather flat, in a half-moon shaped dip. Sony has seen fit to include a single off switch on the back too. This harks back to when the company used to offer remotes that could be flipped between a simple or more complicated style, but takes that idea to a new level.

One slight gripe: some of the sockets at the back of the TV are a little hard to push cables in to. The HDMI inputs in particular are hidden in a recess that makes it very hard to get a chunkier cable in. This isn't the end of the world, but it might cause you problems if you've invested in very sturdy, bulky cables. Other than that, the TV has enough connections, although four HDMI inputs is beginning to feel like it might not be enough for today's world.

Fully apocalypse-enabled
Like many modern TVs, the NX703 is Internet-aware. This means one day Skynet will instruct it to rise up, destroy all humans and create a machine dystopia. Until then, it'll happily fetch films, on-demand TV and other information from the Internet for you.

Services available right now include LoveFilm and Demand Five (as in channel Five), as well as Web favourites such as YouTube and DailyMotion. Upcoming, too, is the BBC's fabulous iPlayer. All of this makes your TV one of the most flexible entertainment centres you can buy.

LoveFilm is free if you subscribe to any of its 'unlimited' packages, although not all of its titles are available for streaming. To set it up, you visit a Web site and register your device with a short, four-digit PIN. Then you just select the movie you want to watch, and off you go. Brilliant.